Tag: search

I was in a meeting the other day and the person speaking was making it down the list of topics he had prepared. It was supposed to be a quick meeting. Just 15 minutes. But it ended up going almost an hour. The reason? Said person would stop at each explanation of the topic and go on in much greater detail into the subject, why this was the best thing ever and then would venture into his vision of what he would like to see happen.

The vision explanation would start simple and start to get drawn out, with several “I know I’m probably stealing some thunder from others here” statements thrown in for good measure. After a few of these, it was obvious to the other twenty people in the room that these extended details were not necessary for the meeting. Not to mention the meeting was held at 12 noon. Yep, hungry and irritated people getting more hungry and irritated.

Overall, it was pretty harmless, but there was a consensus amongst the group after the meeting of this pattern. One detailed dialogue diatribe after another. It was then that I decided a new term needed to be applied to such diversions of discussion. I call them self distractions.

Self Distraction

Now I was sure this term had already been defined. I mean, it’s 2009 and in the midst of the Internet age of everything already have been invented and defined. Sure enough, Google took me to several sites discussing how people can get sidetracked and forget what it was they were working before…. um… oh yeah. Blog post.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Those familiar with my posts out here know I am easily distracted. And most of it is self induced with all sorts of stuff: Google searches on what various bands are up to, working on the many projects I’ve inflicted myself with, thinking of ways to better manage everything… you name it, I can distract myself. But it isn’t self evident until one of two things happen:

I get fed up with nothing getting completed

I see self distraction in someone else

And that’s when the focus turned from “what the hell is he talking about?” to “hey, I do that too.”